Danica Patrick speeds to her first NASCAR pole

Motorsport.com staff

It has been 18 long years since a woman landed a NASCAR pole position but today that historic marker set by Shawna Robinson was broken when Danica Patrick put her No. 7 GoDaddy.com on the NASCAR Nationwide Series pole for the Daytona 300 race.

JR Motorsports joined their lady driver as they celebrated at the Daytona International Speedway. “This feels so good,” Patrick said. “I’m very happy for JR Motorsports and Go Daddy. Both have been so supportive of me. And I’m happy for (crew chief) Tony Eury Jr. He puts so much effort into the speedway cars and he’s so good at them, yet he had never won a pole at Daytona. He came up to me and said ‘Something I’ve never done!’ I’m just happy that I could turn the wheel and push the pedal down, and now we’re on the pole!”